EUCOSSA two day Hackathon -a memoir

poster

Tweeps on Friday last week,the Computer Science  Student Association (EUCOSSA) held a Hackathon at the EUCOSSA Hub which went on the whole night till late Saturday even.Hackathon?Whats the hell is this?Ok.For dummies a hackathon -a name derived from two words,Hacker-i guess you know what is hacking or just Google,the latter is the best,then Marathon-a race… thus when rephrased by #nerds its then called hackathon.An event in which computer programmers and others involved in software development with an ultimate goal to bring solutions to some of the problems we face in life.-A nice introduction i guess.

#eucossathon event

The hackthon was dubbed “The Last Debug”,this was all in dedication to all the CS finalist in campus.The issues to be covered were based on the Egerton Campus Life .We grouped ourselves and each group chose a software to implement on such categories like:

• A software to improve communication and interaction among the University Fraternity
• A software to enhance entertainment within Egerton University

I got into a group of around 9 members,of whom some were  dummy programmers,just to be honest-i like the fact that they all stayed the whole night.Our group developed an online interaction system branded Egercity-Thanks to our lead programmer @BryanTirohp and all members  for each member’s contribution was worth while applauding.

We had 4 groups in total,where each group had about 6-9 members each.The apps created that two day hackathon were;

#geeks coding

• PartyHunt-Helps you to get informed of where you can check in for parties
• Egercity-An interative system between the Lectures and students
• NotBuk-An online Notice board
• Findout-An online lost and found portal and interactive system.

Btw,this was all a competition where the best group was to walk away 4000/= plus a Eucossa T-shirt! The second best won 3000/= ,while the third group took home 2000/=.This was worthwhile coding for,easy cash…

Very group had the hope of winning the same,so  trending #eucossathon #eucossaFriday was left to the judges @moffatmn @dmabiria and @nellynyakan1 as  were put into task programming.However some #geeks were unable to put up,even after the cool music playing at the background,maybe it was all due to too much coffee + code #coffeeConnoisseur.

Too much coffee+code

Dawn met us,and we paused for clean up,and to brush up our apps for presentation later on the day.I couldn’t believe how i managed all that for hours-power behind Caffeine.

During the apps presentation,the judging criteria was;

• Functionality of our app
• The graphical user interface-how appealing was the app.
• Database tables relationships
• etc

Pitching wasn’t an easy task,shaky at first then adopted the niche.The questions were an avoidable-all you needed was to work smart.After the presentation,the moment awaited came,the winners were announced as;

1. Egercity-took the first place!
2. Notbuk-ranked second best
3. Findout -took the 3rd place.

The Group two guys conceded defeat instantly,i liked that.

A tweet just after Egercity won

Then there was a great talk from our guest Mr Agosta Liko,the CEO of PesaPal and Verviant. Key Success Drivers —> Big three #Education #Experience #Exposure.This was   awesome @AgostaL, thanks:-)

We faced wee challenges like a low turnout from the ladies and the finalists,few people knew programming and to some,it was there first time to spend a night staring at a bright screen-Programming.

Thus i recommend out there if you are in Egerton University and you are a techie,Join us,EUCOSSA-Innovation and Creativity.(@eucossa)

As i pen off,i wish to thank  our judges @moffatmn @dmabiria @nellynyakan1 and your guest judge @AgostaL,you judged farely. Also many thanks to all who came and participated on the same,you made the hackathon a success.Also not to forget the Chairman of the Computer Science department,Dr Gikaru for the support he has given EUCOSSA in promoting technology in Egerton University.

Kind regards.

Laban Ndwaru-The outgoing Eucossa Chairperson.